MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
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2020 roadmap on solid-state batteries
No full textLi-ion batteries have revolutionized the portable electronics industry and empowered the electric vehicle (EV) revolution. Unfortunately, traditional Li-ion chemistry is approaching its physicochemical limit. The demand for higher density (longer range), high power (fast charging), and safer EVs has recently created a resurgence of interest in solid state batteries (SSB). Historically, research has focused on improving the ionic conductivity of solid electrolytes, yet ceramic solids now deliver sufficient ionic conductivity. The barriers lie within the interfaces between the electrolyte and the two electrodes, in the mechanical properties throughout the device, and in processing scalability. In 2017 the Faraday Institution, the UK's independent institute for electrochemical energy storage research, launched the SOLBAT (solid-state lithium metal anode battery) project, aimed at understanding the fundamental science underpinning the problems of SSBs, and recognising that the paucity of such understanding is the major barrier to progress. The purpose of this Roadmap is to present an overview of the fundamental challenges impeding the development of SSBs, the advances in science and technology necessary to understand the underlying science, and the multidisciplinary approach being taken by SOLBAT researchers in facing these challenges. It is our hope that this Roadmap will guide academia, industry, and funding agencies towards the further development of these batteries in the future
A Triple Helix systems perspective of UK drug discovery and development: A systematic review of REF impact case studies
No full textUK drug discovery and development is increasingly being shaped through a complex interaction of research, policy and practice. However, our understanding of this innovation system is partially due to the dearth of systems-level empirical studies and to simplistic conceptual approaches. This study uses a Triple Helix systems approach to illustrate how a novel database of Research Excellence Framework 2014 impact case studies may be used both to advance empirical understanding of UK drug discovery and development and for theory development. The authors refine the Triple Helix system by identifying relationships between its three components (academia, government and industry) and various social actors. The paper also make two contributions to practice, concerning the relative unimportance for impact generation of geographical clusters relative to strategic alliances, network linkages and knowledge spillovers, and the strong bias towards national and Anglo-American academic–practitioner linkages with few or no links to emerging knowledge economies
Challenges of implementing bridge model updating in industry practice
No full textModel updating aims to update an analysis model (e.g. a finite element model) of an engineering structure in order to closely represent the true condition and performance of the physical structure. Model updating of bridges has been an active research field for more than two decades, yet the confidence and practical usefulness of bridge model updating results may be subject to questioning. While model updating may have worked well for many other engineering applications, it has found to be challenging and problematic to implement such practice on bridge structures. More recently, there has been a vision of developing bridge digital twins which can automatically update the model in near real time as new monitoring data become available. This paper aims to elaborate on the critical issues that have not been addressed properly to enable real-world implementation of bridge model updating. A series of industry facing semi-structured interviews have been conducted with 19 bridge professionals (owners, operators and consultants) to aid in investigating the technical and practical challenges of implementing bridge model updating in practice. It is envisioned that the outcomes of this paper will inform future research regarding model updating and digital twin development for bridge applications
Production process evaluation for earthworks
No full textProduction in earthworks projects is a continuous process of strictly sequenced operations performed by heavy machinery on site. The Production Process Evaluation (PPE) index was developed to evaluate these types of processes by quantifying waste in the bottleneck operation. The PPE index is the ratio of the actual production volume to the theoretical maximum production volume, and it is calculated by assessing value adding and non-value adding times, actual and theoretical throughput, and shift durations. These are computed using data obtained from machine control systems linked to the roadel information schema, which represents continuous products and processes. The PPE index was implemented on a case study of a water reservoir construction project. The spreading operation was identified as the bottleneck in the process, based on the high levels of inventory waiting for the operation, the high capacity utilization in the operation and the low capacity utilization of the predecessor and successor operations. The PPE index ranged from 45% to 54% during the three weeks of the case study and indicated high levels of waste in the bottleneck and a lack of production management
Simultaneous distributed localization, mapping and formation control of mobile robots based on local relative measurements
No full textThis paper investigates the problem of localizing a team of robots in an indoor environment while simultaneously keeping a robust formation and performing group motion. A distributed observer is proposed to estimate the positions of mobile robots as well as the landmarks under a common global frame. Every robot uses its available local relative measurements, as well as the estimated relative measurements to its neighbors in order to keep a robust formation. Simultaneously, each robot estimates the positions of all the landmarks based on the available on-board relative measurements but also based on the estimated positions from its neighbors. We provide the L2-stability analysis of the closed-loop system where the group is also allowed to maneuver in the unknown environment. Simulation results are also given to show the efficacy of the method
Laser-written silicon-germanium alloy microstructures with tunable compositionally graded profiles
No full textA laser processing method is introduced for post-deposition tailoring of local composition and bandgap in amorphous silicon-germanium thin films on silicon substrates. Spatial distribution of the alloy constituents can be controlled through the scan speed
Fast Bi-Layer Neural Synthesis of One-Shot Realistic Head Avatars
No full textWe propose a neural rendering-based system that creates head avatars from a single photograph. Our approach models a person’s appearance by decomposing it into two layers. The first layer is a pose-dependent coarse image that is synthesized by a small neural network. The second layer is defined by a pose-independent texture image that contains high-frequency details. The texture image is generated offline, warped and added to the coarse image to ensure a high effective resolution of synthesized head views. We compare our system to analogous state-of-the-art systems in terms of visual quality and speed. The experiments show significant inference speedup over previous neural head avatar models for a given visual quality. We also report on a real-time smartphone-based implementation of our system
HEALTHCARE SYSTEMS DESIGN: A SANDBOX of CURRENT RESEARCH THEMES PRESENTED at AN INTERNATIONAL MEETING
No full textHealthcare systems are under strain, this creates a challenge for designers to develop solutions for better health and care delivery. This paper presents a sandbox of illustrative design themes used to improve health systems based on state of the art research projects. These were collated from presentations at The Second International Meeting on Healthcare Systems Design Research, held at DTU-Technical University of Denmark. Attending groups were mapped based on their research keywords, target journals and methodologies in order to gain insight on the communities research landscape
Integrated Gate Commutated Thyristor: From Trench to Planar
No full textThe planar Integrated Gate Commutated Thyristor (IGCT) concept is proposed to simplify the fabrication process of the device and improve the ruggedness as well as electrothermal performance of the device. The planar IGCT concept has been verified experimentally with 4.5kV devices fabricated on 4-inch Si wafers. Afterwards, the electrical characteristics of the planar IGCT were compared with that of the conventional (with trench or mesa gate) IGCT. Both the planar and the conventional IGCTs are fabricated with corrugated p-base referred to as High Power Technology (HPT) design. In addition, mixed-mode TCAD device simulations have been performed to verify the turn-off failure mechanism and to analyze the electro-thermal performance of the planar IGCT in reference to that of the conventional IGCT